Welcome to our club as we move into our 41st season 

Kirton Kestrels is a great, family friendly football club and we pride ourselves in the position of trust we have in coaching our children and young people. We try to place the emphasis on having fun especially with the younger age groups and our philosophy is that winning is not everything !

For 2026-27, Kirton Kestrels has 9 age groups, starting at Under-7 and continuing to Under-17 (but with NO Under-8, Under-15 or Under-16).  The Under-10's, Under-11's and Under-12's are all fielding 2 teams for this season. Our Under-7's will just have coaching for most of the season with training on a Saturday morning. They will be involved with the new FA Future Fit 3 v 3 matches. Most of the other age groups will be playing in the Suffolk Youth Football League on a Saturday morning.  

The club is affiliated to the Suffolk County F.A. The affiliation system changed a couple of years ago so NO affiliation number will be issued in future. Our 'status' will be affiliated.

Kirton Kestrels is a FA 1* accredited football club (used to be FA Charter Standard) and all the club's coaches, managers and often their assistants, have been trained to the Level 1 standard (now called the Introduction to Youth Football), which involves many hours of online work. Everybody who may be involved with the players must undertake a DBS check, Safeguarding course and a basic first aid certification. We have our own Club Welfare Officer and are also following the FA RESPECT "code of conduct" for players, spectators and officials. The club constitution can be found here :  View our club constitution.

Our club HQ is the much envied sports pavilion on Kirton Recreation Ground, which was built in 2003 and received massive funding by the Football Foundation. Although owned by the Parish Council, Kirton Kestrels are the main user of the facility, and contributed significantly to the fundraising for the building.

With the new FA Future Fit programme kicking in this season, some age groups will be playing with a different number of players to last season. Our Under-9s will play 5 a-side games with their home matches at  Kirton Recreation Ground. Due to lack of space, the Under-10 and Under-11 teams will play at Trimley Sports & Social Club and they are now still playing 7 a-side mini-soccer. The  two Under-12 sides and the Under-13 team will now all play 9 a-side matches on Kirton Recreation Ground, sharing the junior pitch..

The club's  Under-14's and Under-17 sides play 11 a-side football, sharing the senior pitch at Kirton Recreation Ground.

All of our Saturday teams play in the Suffolk Youth Football League

Each age group (apart from the Under-7's who train on a Saturday) has 1 hour of training under the floodlights at the Kirton Recreation Ground during the week.The Under-17's will train at the Felixstowe Academy AWA on a Thursday with 2 other slots available for other age groups on the Thursday.  

We have had to increae our subscriptions this year to cover the increase in pitch hire costs, particularly regarding the Trimley Sports and Social Club :-
U7 - £50
U8 to U11 - £95
U12 to U17 - £100
£140 if 2 or more players from the same family

There is NO weekly fee.